


Embracing The Alternatives

by telperion_15



Category: Primeval
Genre: Bondage, Braces, Comedy Interruptions, Community: smallfandomfest, First Kiss, Improvisation, Injury, M/M, Pet Toys, Stuck in the past, Survival, Tourniquet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-30
Updated: 2012-01-30
Packaged: 2017-10-30 09:20:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/330189
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/telperion_15/pseuds/telperion_15
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Connor is impressed by the versatility of Lester's braces.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Embracing The Alternatives

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for smallfandomfest, for the prompt 'Lester/Connor, braces are useful in suprisingly many ways'.
> 
> Minor spoilers for episode 3.03.

  
Smiling fondly, Connor watched as Sid and Nancy attempted to get at their treat, jumping not quite high enough, and sliding on the wooden flooring when they landed again.  
  
The little diictodons had been a bit listless lately. Lester didn’t like them roaming the flat, particularly after the latest unfortunate incident with a pair of expensive goose-down stuffed pillows, so Connor had taken to keeping them in his room for most of time, even though he knew they didn’t like being cooped up.  
  
But today he was home and Lester wasn’t, so Connor had decided to let his pets have a little bit of freedom. And a little bit of fun. He was sure he could clean up any mess the pair made before Lester got home.  
  
Sid bounced upwards again, his nose just brushing the treat hanging above him this time, making it swing backwards and forwards as Nancy watched it avidly.  
  
“Come on, guys, you can do better than that,” Connor told them. “Put a little bit of effort into it.”  
  
He got what he was sure was a reproachful look from the diictodons, before they went back to their assault on the treat. Briefly, Connor wondered whether he should lower it a little, but then decided to let them try for a bit longer before making it easier.  
  
“ _What_ is going on here?”  
  
Connor jumped violently, and even Sid and Nancy stopped what they were doing and turned towards the door.  
  
“What are you doing here?” Connor blurted, resisting the urge to cower under Lester’s glare.  
  
“I live here,” Lester pointed out acidly. “Which you won’t be for much longer if you don’t explain what’s going on _immediately_.”  
  
“Um, Sid and Nancy were bored,” Connor explained, a little sheepishly. “I didn’t think you’d be home for a while, so I let them out for some fresh air.”  
  
“And how exactly do my braces factor into this scenario?”  
  
“Oh. It’s a game for them,” said Connor, gesturing at the red braces hanging from a light fitting, with the treat dangling from the end. “They jump up and grab it. You didn’t have any string, so I, er, improvised.”  
  
“Well, you can un-improvise it right now,” snapped Lester. “And those two can go back in your room. I do not want my unexpected evening off being invaded by two prehistoric beavers.” He pointed sharply at Sid and Nancy.  
  
“But they don’t like being shut away,” Connor protested. “And look, they haven’t made any mess. Please?” He turned on his best puppy dog eyes, although he was still fully expecting Lester to insist on his peaceful evening.  
  
But to his surprise, Lester sighed loudly, and then gave in. “Fine. Just make sure they don’t get under my feet. And if those braces are damaged in any way, you’re buying me some new ones, got it?”  
  
“Absolutely,” replied Connor smartly. “I promise you won’t even know we’re here.”  
  
“I’d better not,” said Lester threateningly. But he seemed marginally less annoyed than when he’d walked in, and as he walked away in the direction of his bedroom, Connor was sure he heard a muttered, “I must be mad…”  
  
He grinned down at the diictodons as he pulled the treat off the end of the braces, splitting it in two and tossing them a half each. “You heard what the man said, guys. Quiet as mice, yeah?” Then he frowned as he inspected the frayed end of his makeshift bungee cord, wondering where one could buy bright red braces…  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
“Well, this isn’t how I expected my day to end up,” Lester observed, looking around them.  
  
“Um, sorry?”  
  
The civil servant sighed. “Much as I’d like to, I can’t blame you for this, Mr. Temple. It’s just bad luck, that’s all.”  
  
“Why did you decide to come through the anomaly, anyway?”  
  
“Because I decided it was about time I saw what it was like for myself. A good boss knows about every aspect of the organisation he’s running.”  
  
Connor frowned a little. He’d never thought Lester was that bothered about being a good boss. Except when it came to paperwork and snarking.  
  
“Now, at the risk of sounding optimistic, can we expect the anomaly to reopen any time soon?”  
  
“Well, it’s been opening every three days for the last two weeks…”  
  
“So we have to wait another three days for it to reopen this time?”  
  
“I should think so, yes.”  
  
Lester looked around again. “So that means we need to find some way to survive here. Is there anything that’s going to try to eat me I should know about?”  
  
“There are a few predators, yes. We’ll need to find somewhere safe to shelter.”  
  
“And what about food?”  
  
Connor felt a momentary flash of panic. It seemed Lester was relying on him for all the answers, and foraging in the Eocene wasn’t exactly something he had a lot of knowledge of. But equally he didn’t want his boss to think he was useless.  
  
Lester seemed to notice his discomfort. “Never mind,” he said briskly, and Connor wondered if he’d imagined the hint of apology lurking in the words.  
  
“Perhaps eating random plants or fruits isn’t a good idea,” the civil servant continued. He shrugged off his jacket, and then to Connor’s astonishment unclipped his braces from the waistband of his trousers.  
  
“What are you doing?”  
  
“If I can make a slingshot, then maybe we can hunt some small game,” replied Lester, testing the elasticity of the braces.  
  
“You can fire one of those?” Connor asked in disbelief.  
  
“I was a boy scout once – I’m sure I’ll remember quickly enough.”  
  
As they started walking in search of somewhere to shelter, Lester also looking out for a suitable forked stick to complete his improvised weapon, Connor wondered if he was going to spend the next three days hungry…  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
Connor gave a strangled hiss, his vision swimming, as Lester pulled the tourniquet tighter. For the hundredth time he wished he hadn’t been so eager to get out of the car when they reached the anomaly site. Lester had told him to wait until the rest of the team arrived, but he’d never been very patient where the anomalies were concerned.  
  
And then of course the creature (later, Connor hadn’t been able to decide if it was one of the smaller species of theropod, or just a juvenile of a large one) had chosen the exact moment he was standing in front of the portal to leap through it, landing right on top of him and immediately slashing deep into his arm with one of its claws.  
  
About the only good thing about the whole situation was that Connor’s loud yell of pain had scared the little dinosaur enough that it had immediately taken off back through the anomaly.  
  
But by then the damage was done. The claw had obviously caught an artery, as bright red blood was pumping out of his arm. It made Connor ill just looking at it, so he tried not to.  
  
It was at that point that he’d suddenly felt himself dragged backwards, strong hands under his arms pulling him away from the anomaly until he was resting with his back against a rock.  
  
Lester had looked down at him, his face more worried than Connor could ever remember seeing it, the civil servant’s eyes flickering between his face and his arm.  
  
There was a bit of a blank patch after that, until the moment when Connor had felt a sudden pressure, and looked round to see Lester pulling a makeshift tourniquet formed from his braces tightly around his upper arm, above the injury that had parted cloth, skin, and muscle.  
  
“Sorry,” said Lester, reading the pain on Connor’s face. “But I need to get you to hospital, and I don’t want you bleeding all over the inside of the car.”  
  
But the flippancy was a little forced, and Connor gave him a weak smile to show he appreciated Lester’s unorthodox sympathy.  
  
Lester took off his tie, and looked at it ruefully. “This was expensive, you know,” he muttered, but it didn’t stop him from winding it around Connor’s arm, bandaging the injury. The black and white stripes immediately turned red.  
  
“Now, can you stand?”  
  
“Er, I’m not sure. Maybe?”  
  
“Come on, then.” Lester’s hands gripped his uninjured arm, and Connor levered himself unsteadily to his feet. He swayed a little when he got there, feeling briefly faint, and leaned heavily against Lester.  
  
“Are you alright?”  
  
“Just don’t let go, okay?” Connor said shakily.  
  
“Of course I won’t,” Lester almost snapped. He eyed Connor critically. “Although if you could try not to bleed on me too much more, it would be much appreciated.”  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
Connor looked up when he sensed someone hovering in the doorway. Although of all the people he might have expected it to be, Lester was _not_ top of that list. He eyed his boss with ill-disguised apprehension.  
  
“Oh, um, was there something you wanted?” he asked tentatively, any number of things Lester might be after him for springing immediately to mind. But he’d definitely filed all his outstanding reports, he’d updated Lester on the progress with the artefact only that morning, and as far as he knew the anomaly detector hadn’t malfunctioned for at least a week.  
  
So what did Lester want?  
  
“Ah…” replied the other man, sounding uncharacteristically hesitant. “I, er, wanted to check how you were.” He gestured vaguely at Connor’s arm.  
  
Connor’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. Since when did Lester check up on the well being of his employees? The only reason he was normally concerned about that sort of thing was its correlation to the amount of forms he had to fill in.  
  
But the ARC medics had pronounced Connor fit and well three days ago. The stitches had come out, and although the scar on his arm was still pink and shiny, the injury had healed nicely.  
  
Ergo, no more forms to fill in on the subject.  
  
“Oh, I’m fine,” he said. “Nothing to worry about any more.”  
  
“Good, I…”  
  
Lester words were cut off by the sudden appearance of Captain Becker behind him. The soldier nearly walked into the civil servant, and Lester quickly stepped further into the room to avoid being bumped.  
  
“Oh, sorry, sir, I didn’t see you there,” Becker apologised hastily. Then he turned to Connor. “Just checking that you’re still on for practice down on the shooting range tomorrow morning. Now that you’ve got a clean bill of health it’d be a good idea if you started getting your aim back again. Nothing too strenuous, mind,” finished the captain, looking somehow stern and cheerful at the same time.  
  
Connor nodded. “Definitely” he replied. “Wouldn’t miss it.”  
  
“Wonderful. See you tomorrow, then.” And Becker was gone as quickly as he’d arrived.  
  
Lester huffed in annoyance, drawing Connor’s attention back to him. The young man tried to remember what Lester had been saying before Becker barged in, but failed.  
  
“Look, Connor, I had something I wanted to say to you…”  
  
“Oh, good, found you!”  
  
Sarah breezed into the room, unlike Becker apparently not noticing Lester at all. “I wanted to ask your advice about something. I’ve been going through Cutter’s notes, and I’ve found this peculiar symbol on a lot of the pages. I was wondering if you knew what it meant.”  
  
Connor looked at the piece of paper she held out to him, and then laughed. “Oh, _that_! That’s nothing. It’s a doodle the professor drew whenever he was distracted, or thinking. I used to find it all over the drafts of my dissertation when we still at the university.”  
  
Sarah laughed too. “Oh, thank god for that,” she exclaimed. “It was beginning to drive me crazy, not being able to decipher it.”  
  
A pointed clearing of a throat finally clued the Egyptologist into Lester’s presence. Connor looked awkward as she jumped in surprise. He eyes darted quickly between the two men before she started backing out of the room.  
  
“Well, thanks for that, Connor. See you later.”  
  
Lester was looking even more annoyed now, and Connor felt his heart sink. The civil servant wasn’t the best tempered of men on a good day, and now he was looking rather pissed off. Connor wondered again what he was in for.  
  
“Connor, about the other day…” Lester began snappishly, but this time it was Danny who interrupted him.  
  
“Have you got the keys to the truck?” Quinn asked, as he bounded into the room. “Only I’ve left my jacket on the back seat and I want to get it before I go home.”  
  
“No, I haven’t,” Connor told him. “Perhaps Abby has them. Although I’m not sure where…”  
  
“Oh, for god’s sake, just use the emergency set that Lorraine keeps in her desk,” Lester barked irritably.  
  
Danny looked faintly taken aback by Lester’s mood, but then grinned and nodded. “Okay, I’ll try that. Thanks.”  
  
As Danny left, Lester pushed the door shut behind him. Connor started to ask him what he was doing, but fell silent again at a glare from the other man. Although as Lester removed his braces, he started to wonder whether his boss ever actually used them to keep his trousers up for more than five minutes together.  
  
When the civil servant stepped back from the door again, Connor could see that the braces were wound alternately around the door handle, and the bracket on the wall that normally held a fire blanket (the absence of which Connor had never got around to reporting after Sid had enthusiastically chewed it to bits).  
  
“There, now no one else can disturb us,” Lester declared. He came and stood in front of Connor, who couldn’t help his eyes sliding to the makeshift lock that was keeping everybody else out. _And me in_ , his brain pointed out. _With Lester_.  
  
“What I’ve been trying to say for the last ten minutes,” said Lester briskly, “is that I’m glad you’re okay because…well, because I was worried about you.”  
  
His tone was somewhat at odds with the nature of his words, and for a few seconds Connor was confused. What was going on here?  
  
“Oh, for the love of god…”  
  
And then Connor suddenly found himself being pulled forward and kissed. _Very_ kissed.  
  
“Oh,” was all he could manage when Lester finally let him go.  
  
“Don’t ask me how,” Lester said, glaring at Connor as if daring him to do just that, “but you, Connor Temple, seem to have got under my skin. Believe me, I wish it wasn’t the case, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot I can do about it.”  
  
“Oh,” said Connor again. Then, as his brain caught up with events, he grinned. “Oh. Okay…”  
  
*   *   *   *   *  
  
Tugging experimentally, Connor felt the slight give in the restraints round his wrists, although it was nowhere near enough to allow him freedom. Not that he particularly wanted to be free.  
  
“Stop struggling,” Lester admonished him.  
  
“I’m not struggling. I’m…testing.”  
  
“Well, stop testing, then.” A sharp pinch to one of his nipples had Connor simultaneously whimpering in pain and arching up into the touch, the sensation shooting straight to his cock. “You wanted this.”  
  
He _had_ wanted it. There was no denying that. He just hadn’t thought Lester would be up for it. Despite that fact that he’d initiated their relationship, the other man had been surprisingly reticent to let things get too intense. So when Connor had shyly (and somewhat drunkenly) voiced his fantasy, it had been without any hope of it being fulfilled.  
  
So when he’d arrived back at the flat that evening – for once staying at the ARC later than Lester – to say he been surprised to be pounced on by Lester, hauled into the bedroom, and tied firmly to the bedstead by his wrists, would be a bit of an understatement.  
  
Connor’s wrists twisted again as Lester pinched the other nipple. It struck him as ridiculously fitting that bonds keeping him restrained were a pair of Lester bright red braces, and he reflected that the man must have mellowed somewhat, since they were certainly going to be ruined by this treatment.  
  
But now wasn’t really the time for reflection, and the thoughts flew out of his head as a rough tongue was dragged over first one nipple, then the other, soothing the throbbing sting.  
  
However, as Lester looked up at him from hooded eyes, Connor could see the worry on his features, and he nodded frantically before his lover could even begin to voice his concerns.  
  
“Please…”  
  
That appeared to be all the encouragement Lester needed, and as his mouth curled into a frankly evil smile, Connor felt his breath catch in his throat. His heart started beating faster.  
  
Lester wasn’t rough, but neither was he gentle, and by the time Connor felt three fingers stretching him thoroughly, he was whimpering and mewling desperately, the elastic round his wrists pulled tight as he writhed on the bed.  
  
Then Lester was pulling his legs up so his ankles were resting on the other man’s shoulders, and Connor felt a thick cock splitting him apart as it pushed inexorably into him.  
  
He own cock jerked in need, but his hands weren’t free, and Lester didn’t seem to feel any inclination to do the job for him as he immediately set a fast rhythm, snapping his hips forward on every thrust, his cock driving against Connor’s prostate over and over.  
  
“Oh god…oh please…oh fuck…”  
  
Connor knew he was begging, but he was desperate to come, and Lester still wasn’t touching him, still wasn’t putting his hands anywhere near his cock.  
  
“I want you come for me just like this,” Lester told him, his voice low and wild. “Come with my cock in your arse and your hands tied above your head.”  
  
“I can’t… _please_ , James…”  
  
Lester growled, and changed his angle fractionally, setting off fireworks behind Connor’s eyes. He was so close.  
  
“Just…like…this…” Lester grunted, pounding Connor’s arse mercilessly, his fingers gripping Connor’s thighs hard enough to bruise.  
  
With a wail Connor came explosively, come spraying across his torso as his convulsive jerking pulled the restraints still tighter. Then he felt hot fluid pumping into him as Lester came too, his vehement curse joining with Connor’s whimpers.  
  
It was some moments before he came back to himself, and then it was the loosening of the bonds around his wrists that did it, the pain as the feeling flowed abruptly back into his hands making him gasp softly.  
  
Looking round, he saw that Lester had had to resort to scissors to cut the braces away, and that the pieces were going straight in the bin.  
  
“Silly boy, you nearly cut off the circulation to your hands,” Lester said. But the words lacked snap, and Connor smiled tiredly as he apologised.  
  
“Sorry.”  
  
“Don’t apologise. Bloody good use for those braces, if you ask me. Don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. Tying you up would save everyone a lot of hassle.”  
  
“Hey!”  
  
“Although if it’s going to become a regular occurrence, I might have to rethink my wardrobe a bit…”


End file.
